Understanding India's Ease of Doing Business Ranking

The World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report is an important indicator of a country's regulatory environment for businesses. India showed significant improvement in its overall rank, moving from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019. This overall jump means that, on average, across the various parameters assessed by the report, India's performance improved significantly.

Analyzing Parameters for Deterioration

The question asks specifically about a parameter where India's rank might have *deteriorated* despite the overall improvement. The report measures performance across several areas, and while many improved for India, it is possible for one or more specific areas to have seen a decline in rank during this period.

Let's look at the parameters mentioned in the options:

• Ease of starting a business: This parameter measures the procedures, time, cost, and paid-in minimum capital required to start a limited liability company. India made significant strides in simplifying business registration processes.
• Getting electricity: This measures the procedures, time, and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection. India also saw improvements in this area due to steps like reducing the time needed for connections.
• Registering property: This parameter examines the procedures, time, and cost required to register commercial real estate. This area often involves multiple steps with different agencies and can be complex.
• Paying taxes: This measures the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay in a given year, as well as the administrative burden of paying taxes and contributions. India implemented reforms like GST which impacted this parameter.

Identifying the Parameter with Deteriorated Rank

While India's overall rank improved dramatically, analysis of the sub-indicator rankings reveals that performance wasn't uniform across all parameters. Among the options provided, historical data from the World Bank's reports indicates that the rank for 'Registering property' did not follow the same improving trend as the overall rank or some other parameters during the 2014-2019 period. In fact, its rank worsened in some years within this period, showing a deterioration compared to other countries' performance in this specific area.

For context, let's consider the general trends for these specific parameters for India:

Based on the World Bank's data for India during this period, the rank for Registering property was the one that saw a deterioration, or at least did not improve significantly and even declined in rank relative to other countries making faster progress in this area.

Conclusion on Ease of Doing Business Parameter

Therefore, despite India's impressive overall jump in the Ease of Doing Business ranking from 142 to 63 between 2014 and 2019, the parameter where its rank deteriorated was Registering property.

Revision Table: India's Ease of Doing Business Parameters

Additional Information: World Bank Doing Business Report

The World Bank's Doing Business report provided quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights. It measured regulations affecting 10 areas of the life of a business:

• Starting a business
• Dealing with construction permits
• Getting electricity
• Registering property
• Getting credit
• Protecting minority investors
• Paying taxes
• Trading across borders
• Enforcing contracts
• Resolving insolvency

The report aimed to provide comparable data across economies and over time to encourage reforms and improve business environments. The report methodology and specific ranks varied slightly year to year based on updates and data collection methods. The overall rank was a simple average of the percentile ranks on each of the 10 topics.

India's significant improvement was often attributed to dedicated reform efforts focusing on areas like resolving insolvency, paying taxes, getting electricity, and dealing with construction permits, which saw substantial positive changes in rank.